He then returned to England, and rejoined the Rifles, and was trained with the other officers in the Shorncliffe Army Camp by Sir John Moore, who secured his promotion to the rank of captain on 6 May 1800.

[3] During the Siege of Almeida and at the Battle of Fuentes de Onoro he commanded a detachment of two hundred picked sharpshooters and half a troop of horse artillery, with the special duty of preventing supplies from entering the place, and during the Siege of Ciudad Rodrigo he commanded the left wing of the rifles at the outposts and the covering party during the storm on 18 January 1812.

At the siege of Badajoz he was specially thanked in general orders, with Colonel Williams of the 60th, for repulsing a sortie, and on the night of the assault he again commanded the covering party.

He had the mortification of being superseded in his command of the battalion by the arrival of Lieutenant-Colonel Norcott in May 1813, and so was only present at the Battle of Vittoria as a regimental major, where he was so severely wounded that he had to return to England.

At the conclusion of peace he received a Gold Medal and two clasps for having commanded a battalion at Ciudad Rodrigo, Badajoz, and Salamanca, and was made a CB.